A Brief History Of McDonald's 40-Year-Old Egg McMuffin

Who knew the Egg McMuffin was 40 years old? The fast-food breakfast sandwich was apparently created in August of 1972 by a certain franchisee named Herb Peterson.

Peterson, who reportedly wanted a breakfast to serve before 11 a.m., took his favorite breakfast and fast-foodified it. The breakfast in question? Eggs Benedict, which makes tons of sense now that we think about it.

According to Restaurant News Resource, Peterson showed the breakfast sandwich to then Mickey-D's president Ray Kroc, who demanded it be launched nationally. And funnily enough, while the rest of fast-food offerings have notably increased in size since the 1950s, Egg McMuffins have been the same size since the '70s.

"The Egg McMuffin hasn't changed much in 40 years. In fact, it can still fit into its original wrapper at just 300 calories," David Martinelli, McDonald's USA Pacific Sierra Region marketing manager, said. We wonder if they can say the same thing about their drink sizes. Also, can someone fast food-ify the croque madame?